History of the Galaxy, part 1-Story Thread

[geoschmo]

2417.1

The small ship exited the lights and colors of the wormhole and plunged into the inky darkness of the Osshod Nebulae. The pilot immediately changed course, circled around, cut power to the minimum and watched the stellar portal closely for any signs that he was followed. The radiation from the Nebulae made sensors inoperable and visual sighting impossible beyond a distance of 1500 kilometers. For ships travelling at near relativistic speeds, 1500 kilometers was less than nothing.

The thought of running into another ship in this soup briefly crossed his mind. Entire fleets of warships could pass through the same sector and even amongst each other’s formations and not even realize it. But the sheer size of space made the chance of that infinitesimal. That was something that spacers took for granted usually. But he was no spacer, so it bothered him regardless.

His sensors would not help him detect a ship if it were following him, and his eyes, even at this close range would not help if the ship were cloaked. But even a cloaked ship caused minute fluctuations in warp points as they passed through. It was those fluctuations that he was looking for now. Once reassured that there was no one behind him, he set his course for the coordinates he had been given. Somewhere in this nebula was another ship, one belonging to the Sergetti Empire. He was to rendezvous with it, meet with it's occupant, and enter into negotiations to sell his soul.

He thought back over the seventeen years since that awful day when his universe had turned upside down. He thought about the chain of events that had led him down this path to treason. In fact he had already been tried and convicted in abstentia for high crimes against the Sallegan Republic, but he rejected that.

Before this day if he had been guilty of anything he would accept only that he had put too much trust in incompetents. His incompetent advisors that had assured him the Xi'chung were not a threat. And his incompetent nephew who allowed himself to get killed by the first shot in the war. Their incompetence had cost him his position, and nearly cost him his life. It was only by sheer luck that he had escaped the obliteration of Capitol City as he had taken that precise moment to visit the Space Yard to personally berate the incompetent mangers in charge of construction.

In the chaos surrounding the bombardment anyone who knew his whereabouts on that day was killed. Fearing for his life he had taken to the caves along with hundreds of others in the outer province. Whether it was fear or shame that had prevented him from revealing his identity to his fellow survivors that terrible day he know longer knew, and he know longer cared. Whatever the cause it had been a wise decision. One that had saved his life. For upon his triumphant return that megalomaniac Grandow had issued orders for his arrest, not even knowing whether he was alive, and not even caring whether he was guilty.

The trial had been a swift one, as all kangaroo courts are he thought. He had watched it on the television from the safety and anonymity of a refugee camp. He had decided then that his days as Senator Dravis Flicken were over. With forged papers, he worked his way onto a colony ship and set out for the Usphada system.

Five years of manual labor producing minerals for the Republic had hardened his heart as much as his body. Another five of work more to his talents, advancing up the ranks of colony management had led to his present position as the real power behind the incompetent Governor Simpson of Usphada III. He could not risk taking the reins of power openly himself without being recognized. Before Simpson he had resigned himself to never achieving his revenge on Grandow and dying a lonely anonymous death on a backwater world of the Republic. But in this man he had found a true lump of clay that he could mold in his image. And through this man he would get that revenge.

But he had never allowed before allowed his anger for the Admiral to take him down the road he was now travelling. He had never lost his love for the Republic, or at least that is what he told himself. Even now as he waited for the ship containing the enemies of his beloved Republic, he believed that the ends justified the means.

He knew it was very likely that his plan would fail. And even if it succeeded he knew he would probably be viewed poorly by history. But he had to do something. He couldn't sit back and let that man destroy everything that thousands of years of Sallegan progress had built.

He reached the coordinates and waited…

[geoschmo]

2417.1 Continued

Along with the coordinates, he had been given a frequency to monitor, but no other information about what to expect. After a time his communication system chirped and the sergetti ship pulled into view. It was much larger than his own ship, probably frigate class, although Flicken was not all that good at identifying those sort of things. Space ships had never held much facination for him. As long as they got him where he wanted to go he cared for little else.

This ship did not have the sleek cylindrical shapes that he was used to with Sallegan ships. It appeared to his untrained eye to be just a series of large spheres joined together with some engines hung off the back almost as an afterthought. He had been told to maintain strict radio silence to avoid detection, and suddenly realized he didn't know how he was going to dock with this thing as he had been given no instructions. As soon as that thought formed though several lights along the side of the Sergetti ship began flashing in a rythmic pattern drawing his eyes towards what was obviously a docking portal.

He nuged his ship slowly closer until the magnetic clamps took hold and locked their ships fast. He made his way to the airlock and stepped through into the Sergetti ship. The sergetti airlock was very similer to his own. Idly he supposed there was only so many ways to design one of these things afterall. The only major difference was a complete lack of furniture of any kind. In fact the only thing in the room was an enviroonmental suit hanging on a hook in the wall. A closer examination showed the suit appeared to be designed for Sallgan pysiology. As he had been on their ship for several minutes now and had no communication from his hosts, Flicken surmised that they were waiting for him to put the suit on.

As soon as he did so he heared a hissing and gurgling sound and the chamber rapidly began filling with water. The suit had some sort of breathing aparatus and something that appeared to be a communication device, but it was not very well insulated. The water was painfully cold. So much so that Flicken started to wonder if he would be able to function in it. He had no medical training, but he knew what hypothermia was, and what kind of effect it had on the Sallgean body. His body started to shiver uncontrolably

Once the chamber was full the inner door opened and Flicken floated face to face for the first time with a member of the Sergetti race. Three meters long, and except for a larger head and arms it was the spitting image of the sea snakes that inhabited his homeworld. Seeing his discomfort with the water temperature the Sergetti swam towards him, reached out and pressed a button on the sleeve of the suit. Flicken felt the warmth flow over his body as the environmental suits heating system kicked in.

Through the water Flicken could hear sereval clicks and whistles that he assumed was the aliens method of speech. His guess was confirmed when the communicator/translator crackled to life with a mechanical sounding voice speaking in Sallegan, "That is better, no?" Flicken nodded his approval, the shivers almost completely subsided now.

"What is your designation, er, your name? Is that the word?" The Sergetti asked.

"My name is Davisen," Flicken replied, using the name he had adopted all those years before. "I speak for Governor Simpson of Usphada III."

"You may call me Riesta. My Queen wishes for me to be blunt with you. Why do you seek to betray your government?" The Sergetti had been swimming slowly around but stopped and locked eyes with Flicken while he waited for a response.

"My governor and I, and many others in this part of the Sallegan Republic believe that it is our government that has betrayed us. They have failed to give us adequate protection from the Norak in the area. And now we have learned that they are prepared to give back the gains that we have fought and bled for for their own security. We feel this is a bad policy. We believe the Norak are not to be trusted." Flicken had told himself these things so many times he almost believed them. "Our Admiral is a shortsighted fool. He seized power years ago in a time of crises, and has refused to relinquish it. He has caused mch suffering among my people, and the Sergetti people in his attempt to keep the masses afraid and in line."

"So," Riesta interupted "This is why your people have invaded our territory and enslaved our populations?"

"Yes. Governor Simpson is prepared to return your planets to you in return for your assistance." Flicken stated flatly. The fact was Simpson had no knowledge of this meeting, and would probably have wet his pants at the thougth of conspiring with the Sergetti.

"What is this assistance you need?" Riesta asked warily "We cannot openly oppose the Norak, we have a treaty with them. We are not particularly fond of their expansionism in the area, but they have not captured our people or destroyed our vessles as you have."

"No, we understand this. We do not ask you to take arms against the Norak. We will deal with them. We have many ships that are loyal to our cause. But we need time. We need your ships to interfere with communications between Usphada and the Sallegan Homeworld. And when we deal with the Norak here will need your assistance in dealing with the Sallegan fleets that are sure to come to respond. Many will be tied up in Cephredi as this action will likely cause open warfare between the Norak and Sallegan fleets amassed there, but enough will come that it could be a problem for us."

Riesta considered Flickens words for a moment without speaking. "And for this assistance, you will agree to remove your fleets and your colonies from Usphada and Narcisston once you have seized control of your government?"

"Yes." Flicken answered without hesitation.

"Then go, we shall do as you request. But do not fail us, and do not allow the Norak to learn of this arangement."

With that Riesta swam away into the interior of the ship and left Flicken to make his own way back to his ship.

...

[geoschmo]

2417.3

In retrospect it was remarkable that the Sallgan rebels had managed even the small amount of damage they did in the brief battle in Usphada. They outnumbered the Norak warships by 4 to 1, but these were not the outdated Norak ships that the Sallegan navy had faced in the Battle of Cephredi a couple of years before. These four ships were top of the line Norak battle ships, with much superior weponry, and the mysterious Religious Tailsmans that the Sallegans had so far been unable to decipher.

While the rebels did have three Grandow class Battle Cruisers, they were early units of the series, including the initial Grandow herself, serial 0001. The remainder of the fleet were pratically relics. Frigates, and destroyers with hoplessly outdated weaponry and little or no combat electronics. Remainders of the Xi'Chung and Sergetti wars pressed into service due to the recent tensions and assigned to what was supposed to be a security post in a less critical area of the empire. In fact a couple of the Desroyers had actually taken part in the invasion of the Xi'Chung homeworld and were scheduled to be given to the naval museum as soon as the situation allowed. A few of their youngest crewmembers were not as old as the ships they were serving on.

In tonnage and number of weapons it was far closer to an even fight than the number of ships relayed, and in fact in quality the Norak were far superior. Despite this the Sallegans did manage to destroy one Texas V class Battleship, although the rest of the Norak vessels escaped apparently without scratch. Many of the smaller Sallegan vessels were destroyed by the first Norak volleys before even making to their own weapons ranges.

Davisen/Flicken had done a careful job of selecting officers for key fleet positions that were loyal to their cause. This in conjunction to a well timed Sergetti interferance had resulted in Admiral Grandow not being aware of the operation until it was too late to stop it. He attempted to warn the Norak government of the plot, but his signals either did not arrive in time, or were not taken seriously.

Apporpriate appologies were expressed over the loss of Norak life on the battleship. Grandow considered them all very fortunate that that was the extent of the losses. He could not imagine the damage to Sallegan/Norak relations at such a critical juncture in the peace process had the rebels succeded in their attack. It very likely could have lpunged the quadrant into a war that neither side would have recovered from in his lifetime.

In fact, since most of his frontline ships could not leave the Cephredi system, he had to dispatch the fleet garrisoning the Xi'Chung homeworld. He was not even sure they would have been able to deal with the rebel fleet in Ushpada had they been victorious. If they managed to get through this crises Grandow decided he needed to have a talk with his minister in charge of keeping the fleet retrofits up to date.

Despite the incident the Norak government showed restraint. Negotiations were finalized to turn the colony in Narcisston back over to Norak control. The order was sent, although Grandow was not sure who was at the receiving end. The loyalist fleet he dispatched from Organtrix would not be in Narcisston for four months, and though he had issued orders for Governor Simpson to be arrested, communications had been sporadic from the eastern systems. Most of his concrete information over the Last couple months had come from the Norak themselves. There was still a large Sallegan fleet in Narcisston, and he was afraid that considering the events of late, he was not totally sure of their loyalty.

[geoschmo]

2417.5

The "rebellion" was falling apart before it had even started. In fact most Sallegans in the eastern systems were not even aware they were involved in a rebellion. The distances involved nessecitated a lot of compartmentalization. Governor Simpson was the ranking representative of the Rebublic for the Usphada and Narciston systems, and as such his orders were obeyed unless contradicted by direct communication from the Sallegan homeworld.

The Sergetti communication interferance had been quite effective. The few Messages that got through from the Space Service made little sense out of context of the other information on hand. A few officals and Naval officers had suspicions, but nothing that could be confirmed. They chose to wait for this confirmation to disobeying direct orders from the appointed local leadership and risk ending their carrers. If perhaps they had talked amongst themselves more they would have relized they weren't alone in their suspicions and things could have been ended sooner. But this was a war, declared or not, and in war you obeyed you superiors or people got killed.

After the catastrophe in Usphada, Governor Simson had almost a complete mental breakdown. He was sure that any minute the full force of the Sallegan navy would come puring in from Organtrix to crush him. Davisen/Flicken had him isolated and began to issue orders more openly to the eastern colonies.

About this time the message filtered through the Norak representatives on Narcisston VIII that the Sallgan republic had turned control of the colony back over to them and ordered the Sallegan troops and ships to leave the sector immedietly and relocate to Narcisston VI. Flicken refused, and informed the fleet that it was a forged order and told them that the Sallegan Navy had been destroyed in Cephredi and that there was an open state of war between the two empires.

Whether it was their strict code of obedience, or the vision of their fellow officers and crew in Usphada being cut down by the Norak, the Sallgan fleet in Narcisston chose to follow Flicken's instructions and refused to move.

On the surface of the planet things were different. Major General Jackson of the Sallegan Space Marines had been stationed on the planet for several months and had grown to have a deep respect for the Norak people and their religion. He had his doubts about the current Tribunal government, but he strongly believed that war with the Norak was a mistake.

When presented with evidence of the agreement by Kelraeck the Norak formerly the Governor of Narciston VIII, he believed it. He didn't know what was going on, but he thought it was clear that Governor Simpson was not acting in the interests of peace. He ordered his troops to turn over control of the planet to the Norak despite Simpsons orders.

Flicken was furious. He joined the fleet over the planet and informed the officers that the planet had rebeled with the help of disloyal marines and that the planet was to be destroyed immedietly. Having no defenses other than the the ships that had now turned on them, the planet fell quickly. There were no survivors among the Norak or the Sallegan marines defending them.

When Grandow learned of this he was distraught. He had just sent an official offer of a non-aggresion pact to the Norak government, and he had no doubt that the Tribunal had recieved almost simultaneously the treaty offer and the knowledge of the destruction of their colony. He tried to put himself in their position and think what he would do if presented with such treachery. He hoped that they valued peace as much as he did would not allow this additional incident to stop it. He ordered the fleet in Cephredit to their highest level of preparedness in case things fell apart. The next 48 hours would be critical.

[TerranC]

Just a wild question; if you don't mind answering; out of the blue:

When is the gold Version of this incredible game starting on pbw?

[Jmenschenfresser]

Well, this was really supposed to just be an experiment. We started with 1.49 because I didn't have Gold at the time.

Honestly, I don't know if I would even consider doing another one. Don't want to write through all of the same stuff that happens to an empire in the first turns.

However, and this is something I think the lot of us have only learned in the Last 50-80 turns, these role play-writing games are only as fun as your imagination. Turn an attack into a conspiracy, like Geo did....much more fun.

I can see that this genre of SE4 game could really be exploited with designed maps and pre-written storylines.

Who knows...maybe I would do another...dunno.

[geoschmo]

Well, I am definetly looking to do another one at some point. Maybe a few months down the road. If Mencsh doesn't join I will be sad, but I am sure there will be many that can step in. I can certainly understand his feeling about doing all the begnining stuff again. The next History will be totally seperate from this one. I will use a different race. If anyone chooses to use the same races that are in this game it will be totally separate histories. Not an actual continuation or anything.

Geoschmo